Mount Falcon Park in Colorado

On March 24, 2020March 24, 2020 By Living The Q Life Travel AdventuresIn Colorado, Hiking5 Comments

A while ago, we decided to head up to go hiking near Morrison, Colorado, which is a small town just outside of Denver. It is the home of the famous Red Rocks Amphitheatre, but we were there to get up into the mountains and enjoy some of the last days of summer. Any trail that is close to Denver is always likely to be crowded with hikers and mountain bikers and this was definitely the case at Mount Falcon Park. We decided to avoid the main trail, Castle Trail, which was packed with families, and take Parmalee Trail instead. It turned out to be a wise decision as we ended up having the trail almost all to ourselves.

It was a beautiful day and the air was cool enough to make hiking thoroughly enjoyable. As with almost any hike in the mountains, there were gorgeous views and the wildflowers were still in bloom. The trail itself was steep at times, which is probably one of the reasons that there were fewer people on it, but not steep enough to be difficult. This happened to be one of the last hikes before the cooler, autumn weather arrived and it turned out to be a perfect hike to end the summer season with.

We don’t usually head north to go hiking, mostly because of the crowds, but we were glad that we decided to give this trail a chance. We use an app call AllTrails (or you can go to their website, alltrails.com) to find different trails to go hiking on. We have had many guide books over the years, but in this digital age it is easier to use the app, which also has ratings and comments from other hikers. In a sense, it is like TripAdvisor for hikers. However we find the trails, it is nice to find new trails like the ones at Mount Falcon Park, to go hiking on.

Denver Botanic Garden

On August 9, 2019 By Living The Q Life Travel AdventuresIn Colorado, Photo Challenge4 Comments

There are several cities with wonderful botanical gardens, but we believe that the Denver Botanic Garden is one of the best. Between the tropical flowers, rotating art displays, and special events, there is always something interesting to see at the garden. We especially enjoyed the variety of colorful orchids that we saw during our visit there. It is a great way to spend a summer afternoon, walking the flower lined paths and seeing the gardens dedicated to different regions around the world. The Denver Botanic Garden will often create displays on the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver to allow shoppers to see some of the wonderful flowers that can be found in the gardens. If you are planning a trip to Denver, we’d definitely recommend that you consider adding the Botanic Gardens to your itinerary.

IMGP4753 — Walking the Grounds of the Botanic Garden

IMGP4755 — Walking Through the Hot House

IMGP4742 — Garden Outside of the Hot House

Colorful Flowers Around the World

On July 19, 2019 By Living The Q Life Travel AdventuresIn Photo Challenge7 Comments

Regardless of where we travel to, whenever we see a beautiful flower we tend to take a close-up picture of it. We have been to many tropical locations, which have amazing flowers, but we see beautiful flowers in the hearts of cities as well. Obviously we also see wild flowers along the trails during our hikes. What we love about the close-up pictures is how it often captures the contrasting colors within the flower petals. We have included many of our favorite flowers here. Do you take photographs of flowers that you come across during your travels?